From start to finish, the process of purchasing a home business can be a tricky road to navigate. Even the very first decision can prove to be a hurdle for some people: am I ready for this? Particularly if you’re a person prone to worry, this can be a difficult and fearful question to ask, and an even harder one to answer, especially if you’ve never purchased or operated your own business before. Simply approaching the idea of opening your own business can be challenging, regardless of how easy a work from home model may be. However, "am I ready for this" doesn’t have to be an impossible question, and although it may seem a little unexpected, the government can help you answer it.

Actually, the government is so concerned about small business development and entrepreneurship as a serious stimulus to the United States economy, that the Small Business Administration has constructed a website with a wide variety of tools and support systems to help businesses along. The list of services they provide is long, but includes some impressive features like business planning tips, information about various financing options, a full business law library, online business training, small business podcasts, and all the government forms you could want.

One of their most interesting web tools, though, is the SBA assessment tool: a 5-minute questionnaire designed to help potential entrepreneurs decide whether or not they are equipped to start an Air Advantage internet sales franchise, DVDNow movie rental franchise, or any other home based business. It’s a surprisingly simple list of questions, that literally only take a few minutes to fill out, and it covers just about every question that would need to be asked.

The yes/no questions are broken into 3 category headings: general; personal characteristics; and skills, experience, and training. The general section includes questions regarding who you’ve discussed your business ideas with, if you have the support of family and friends, and whether or not you have sought professional counsel.

The personal characteristics heading asks a few questions about you to help determine if you have the personal qualities that most entrepreneurs display: are you a leader, do you display confidence, are you a team-player, etc.

The skills, experience & training question list takes you through a whirlwind look at your business history, natural talents, and accumulated training. Altogether, the questionnaire is sure to give you a better idea of where you stand in preparedness as you look at the prospect of starting a work at home franchise. If you have what it takes to make it in the business world, but need a little nudge in the right direction, the SBA can help show what to you.

If, however, there is anything about your answers that would lead the SBA assessment to conclude that you are not yet ready to start a business, it doesn’t just tell you to give up all dreams of owning a business entirely. Instead, it takes your responses and develops a plan of action for you to follow that will help fill out those areas in which you may not have scored as highly as possible. Once you have read the recommended material, sought counsel from a trained business coach, and done whatever else the results indicate would be a good idea for you to do, you should be ready to come back and ace the assessment. The assessment is not something designed so that the SBA can bar people from starting businesses, but it does help to bolster people who are ready and advise people who aren’t.

All in all, the SBA and its array of business tools are very helpful to anyone interested in any kind of business. Whether you’re on the path to getting into business-to-business internet consulting with WSI Internet, just browsing for an internet franchise, or simply toying with the idea of any kind of franchise business, the SBA can help, and it wants to, so take advantage of the services that it offers. It makes no sense to avoid free help.


September 06, 2008